


When You Come For Dinner

by Glaisne



Series: Polysiders Hours [3]
Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: He's a good Dad, I love Danny, It's always polysiders hours in this house, Lisa is ace like in canon, Polysiders, obviously, she's not aro tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:15:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24722899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glaisne/pseuds/Glaisne
Summary: Danny wonders what his daughter has been up to. He wouldn’t have guessed ‘dating four people.’
Relationships: Alec/Taylor Hebert/Brian Laborn/Rachel Lindt/Lisa Wilbourn
Series: Polysiders Hours [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1733671
Comments: 5
Kudos: 110





	When You Come For Dinner

Danny watched his daughter fix herself a bowl of cereal. She’d made enough coffee for the two of them, and he poured himself a mug while he considered how to broach the subject. 

“You’ve been out a lot, lately,” he commented, trying to gauge her reaction. “You’re not…you would tell me if you were caught up in something, right kiddo?”  


Taylor’s brow scrunched in confusion. “What? What do you mean–”

“You tell me. Is it drugs? Gang activity?”

He felt awful just putting words to the possibility. To think his daughter could be in danger, could be in trouble. It was terrible to contemplate. But she had been going out a lot, and she’d been acting distant, and acting weird when he asked about her friends, and–

Taylor gave a startled, breathy laugh. It was Annette’s. “No, dad. I–No. I’m just. I’m dating, is all.”

Danny blinked in surprise. Taylor was blushing, head ducked as she went back to her breakfast. “Oh. Oh. That’s–” what was it? If she was happy, it was great. But he couldn’t help but feel uneasy. If it was anyone from her school, he didn’t think he could tolerate them knowing they hadn’t done anything about the bullying. And with how secretive she was being about it…“Fun. That’s fun, kiddo. Who, uh, who is it?”

Taylor’s spoon clinked as she set it down. She was twisting her mouth like she did when she was thinking hard. She looked almost sick with anxiety. What was going on? Was she not safe with whoever she was seeing? 

“Um. Okay. I was actually going to try and tell you about this, soon, anyways. But, Dad. I really like them. And I know it’s not a conventional relationship, but they’re important to me and I–”

All of Danny’s worries vanished as he put together what she was talking about. This, he could deal with. He had actually talked over how to handle this with Annette, after they’d noticed how close Taylor was to her friend Emma. He’d even read part of a parenting book on it, just to make sure he did it right.

“I’m not homophobic, Taylor. I love and accept you no matter who you’re dating. I’m glad you could tell me about this. Of course, I’ll want to meet your girlfriend, but–”  
“No,” Taylor cut in. “I mean, that’s not all. I mean I do have girlfriends but I have boyfriends, too. It’s–you’ve probably never heard of it, it’s called polyamory. I’m dating a few people.”

Danny took a second to make sure his mouth wasn’t still open. He adjusted his glasses to buy himself a little time. She was right, he didn’t know anything about this. He didn’t know if this was healthy or safe, or bad for her emotionally. It didn’t sound healthy. It sounded cult-ish. But the way she was looking at him, like she was at an execution block. He could start out with being open to the idea, and then once he’d picked up on what exactly was wrong, he could go from there. He felt way out of his depth. But he loved her, he had to try.

“Oh,” he said, just for a little bit more time. “That’s…that’s fun, kiddo. When can I meet them?”

Taylor smiled, the first genuine smile she’d given him in a while. She had seemed more cheerful, lately. Maybe this wouldn’t be awful. 

“I could invite them over for dinner next weekend? You have Sunday off.”

“Right. Sounds great. Uh…how many extra are we cooking for?”

“Just four. I’ve told you about them, actually. Rachel, Lisa, Alec, and Brian. You’ll like them. Well, you’ll like Brian and Lisa. Alec and Rachel can be a little…off putting to some people. But once you get past that, you’ll like them too.”

Off putting. He didn’t like the sound of that. Still, he made himself smile. From what she’d told him, at least Lisa and Brian were smart and accomplished young people. So long as the others weren’t dangerous, it was fine if they were lackluster and unpleasant. 

“I can’t wait to meet them,” He reassured his daughter. 

She smiled, again. He really had missed her smile. 

He could do this.

Whatever ‘this’ was.

…

Taylor fidgeted with the hem of her shirt while she waited in the living room, her eyes periodically darting to the door. She seemed to perk up a few moments before the doorbell rang, already opening it to wrap her arms around the blonde girl who entered first.

Behind the blonde girl was a nicely put together young man who pressed a chaste kiss to Taylor’s cheek before smiling politely and offering Danny his hand.  
“Hey, Mr. Hebert, it’s good to meet you. I’m Brian.”

“And I’m Lisa,” Grinned the blonde girl as she turned her attention to Danny, her fingers still laced through Taylor’s. “This is Rachel,” she gestured towards a surly looking girl who Danny hadn’t seen enter. Rachel seemed to be glaring at him, her arms crossed over her chest. Rachel grunted what must have been a greeting. She looked familiar in a ‘haven’t I seen you on wanted posters’ sort of way. Danny chided himself for being overdramatic. “And Alec,” Lisa finished.

Alec looked bored as he regarded Danny. No, that wasn’t quite it. He looked completely expressionless. 

Danny didn’t let his smile falter. “Right. You can all call me Danny.”

There was a brief, awkward silence in which Lisa’s smile turned slightly pained, Brian looked towards Taylor helplessly, and Rachel looked increasingly uncomfortable.

“Right.” Danny filled the silence. “Me and Taylor made fettuccine.”

“Like from Ratatouille?” Alec questioned, looking skeptical. 

Lisa swatted at his arm. “They didn’t eat fettuccine in Ratatouille, they ate ratatouille.”

“Ratatouille is the rat’s name,” Alec corrected. 

“When was the last time you watched Ratatouille?” Taylor asked, seemingly appalled. “The rat’s name is Remi.” 

Brian pinched the bridge of his nose, though the gesture didn’t hide the smile sneaking onto his face. “If we could stop debating a movie about a rat, Mr. H–Danny was saying that he and Taylor made dinner.”

Alec nodded. “Sweet.” His expression twisted with amusement. “Or savory.”

“Thank you, Danny, that sounds delicious.” Lisa smiled, seeming to ignore Alec.

Rachel mumbled something that sounded like ‘Thanks.’

“No problem. Taylor, why don’t you show our guests to the table. I’ll join you kids in a second.”

Danny watched as the group settled in around the table before he took a second to duck into his bedroom and count to ten. They weren’t bad. But they were a lot. Louder and more comfortable taking up space than Taylor was. They weren’t the type of people he’d expected her to wind up with. Not that he’d have expected her to wind up with multiple people, of course. How they interacted, and how Taylor seemed to fit in seamlessly, was just another curveball. 

And–he thought of how Taylor had been wearing brighter colors, going out more, speaking a little bit louder–maybe it wasn’t a bad one. 

He made his way back towards the joint kitchen and dining room, pausing for just a second outside the doorway. 

“I’m telling you, we need a big move. Like, Bri, show him how you can pop all your knuckles. I’ll put a bunch of pasta on my fork all at once. Between those two skillsets, he’ll be wildly impressed and approve of us.”

“I told you, you don’t need to impress my dad–Brian, put away your union talking points–you just have to act nice and normal.”

Danny suppressed a smile, making sure his footsteps made enough noise to act as warning before he pushed the door open and took his seat at the table, smiling at his guests. 

“Sorry about that, thank you for waiting. Dig in, we made plenty.”

He watched while they hesitantly began to help themselves, Rachel fully breaking the ice by putting a mound of pasta on her plate and beginning to wolf it down.

They seemed alright for now, but he still had questions. The only problem? Asking them without embarrassing or irritating Taylor. Of course, if it came down to it, it was better that she be angry and he be sure she was safe, but if he could–

“So, you probably have questions,” Lisa said. 

He blinked. “Yes, I have a few.” Maybe it was best to be straightforward, here. “How, ah, how does this all,” he gestured around the table with a fork. “Work?”

Brian leaned forward. “We like Taylor, and she likes us. We enjoy spending time with her, and we care about her, and we’re not going to hurt her.”

Danny frowned. “So…you’re just all okay with your girlfriend dating other people?”

Lisa laughed, and he turned questioning eyes her way. 

“Sorry.” She looked apologetic for the outburst. “We’re not just all dating Taylor. We’re all dating each other.”

He looked towards Taylor. She nodded, as though this had been obvious. He took a second to look back around the table, at how Lisa was clearly holding both Taylor and Rachel’s hands, at how Alec’s seat seemed angled towards Brian, at how Rachel and Alec were seemingly trying to communicate with head tilts and meaningful looks–glares, on her part. 

“Oh,” he said. “Right. Well…I’m sorry, but how does that happen?”

The group exchanged glances. 

“Well, we all started off as friends,” Taylor began. “And then Lisa told us we all had crushes on each other.”

He looked towards Lisa. She shrugged. “It’s true. I’m pretty perceptive about that kinda thing, so I could tell we all had feelings for each other. We just needed to talk it out in terms of what we wanted our relationship to look like.”

“So…you’re all,” he paused, trying to remember what word Taylor had used earlier. “Bisexual?”

Lisa shook her head. “I’m asexual, not bi. Not aro, though. Alec and Rachel are bi, but Brian is demi. We don’t all necessarily have identical interests in each other, but we all care about each other deeply, and we all want this relationship.”

Danny nodded. That seemed remarkably…fine. He took a bite of his pasta. 

“So, what do you kids do for fun?”

Tension left the group at that question, Alec leaning back slightly while Brian’s shoulders untensed and Rachel unclenched the fist that had been throttling her fork to death. 

“I do kickboxing,” Brian offered. “My dad owns a gym, so I help out with giving lessons, there.” 

“Oh? What gym?”

“It’s the one just off Saint Street?”

“Huh. My friend Kurt keeps trying to take me there. Maybe I’ll give in. What about you, Lisa?”

“I read,” said Lisa. “Not always the same stuff as Taylor, but there’s some overlap. And I do some coding type stuff.”

“She’s brilliant,” Taylor interjected. “She’s the smartest person I’ve ever met.”

Danny raised his eyebrows. “High praise. Alec?”

He shifted, looking almost caught off guard. “I game. And I paint.”

“What type of painting?”

The look Alec was giving him was part wary and part amused. “Stencils and spray paint, mostly, but I’m okay with oils. I don’t really fuck with watercolors.”

“Impressive,” he said. “How about you, Rachel?”

Rachel shifted in her chair. “I like dogs.”

“She volunteers at shelters,” Lisa elaborated. 

“And she adopts,” Alec added. “Obsessively.”

Taylor nodded. “She’s really great with them. She helps out a ton of animals.” 

Danny gave the girl a reappraising look, trying to reconcile the gruff girl he saw with the girl who apparently volunteered to help animals in her spare time.  
“That’s incredible. And it doesn’t get in the way of your studies?”

“No.”

He nodded, trying not to be put off by her monosyllabic answer. He hated to ask about something serious so soon after the tension had broken, but he couldn’t dismiss the question that had been buzzing at the back of his mind.

“So, do all of your parents know about,” he gestured around the table, “this?”

The energy at the table turned awkward in an instant, and he almost regretted asking. But it was important to know what Taylor’s…partners’ parents thought of the situation.

“Who gives a fuck?” Rachel scoffed, somehow looking annoyed and protective at the same time. Lisa held up a hand to placate her, giving Danny an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, Mr. Hebert. None of us are really close to our parents like Taylor is. Rachel is…emancipated. So am I. Brian…” She cast a glance sideways towards Brian, and Danny suddenly remembered what Taylor had said about him trying to get custody of his sister. You didn’t need to get custody of your sister if your parents could do the job.

“Outside of work, I don’t really talk to him,” Brian finished Lisa’s thought for her. 

“And I,” Alec declared. “Am way to good for that fucker.”

Danny tried not to be taken aback by the harshness of that assertion. He supposed it was normal for teenagers to have strained relationships with their parents. So far, Taylor had been an outlier. He hoped she stayed one. 

He finished off his fettuccine to cover the time it was taking him to respond.

“Right,” he finally settled on. “Who wants dessert?”

Danny still wasn’t entirely sure what to make of his daughter’s relationship once the group had left, leaving him with compliments on dinner and more questions than he had before meeting them.

“Hey,” Taylor said as she turned from the closed door after seeing them off. She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a hug. “Thanks, dad.”

“Anytime, kiddo,” he promised.

He wasn’t sure what he thought of them, the group of teens that had come into his daughter’s life and made her smile like she hadn’t in years. But he knew he was grateful. And for his daughter, he could learn to understand.


End file.
